


Benny and Vanessa

by killemwithfluff



Category: In the Heights - Miranda
Genre: Developing Friendships, F/M, Feelings, Friendship, Sports
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-30
Updated: 2018-03-30
Packaged: 2019-04-15 02:55:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14150409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/killemwithfluff/pseuds/killemwithfluff
Summary: Basically, I got this idea that Benny and Vanessa needed to become better friends and decided that Benny wanted to teach her sports. My first In The Heights fic!





	Benny and Vanessa

Benny glanced over his beer glass. Vanessa looked bored and Benny didn’t blame her. This was all Usnavi’s idea. 

“You and Vanessa could be close too!” Usnavi had replied when Benny brought up how close Usnavi and Nina were one day. It wasn’t that Benny was jealous. Usnavi and Nina were always at Abuela’s together growing up, so it made sense. He and Vanessa just felt left out when they were on double dates and were making references to inside jokes. This had been both Usnavi and Nina’s suggestion, but Usnavi had suggested a sports bar. 

“Show her some of your interests. Vanessa likes that.” Benny tried not to roll his eyes. ‘No, Usnavi, Vanessa likes your interests.’ 

“So, how’s the Bronx?” Vanessa rolled her eyes. 

“Terrible. Ya know, I never really thought about that stereotypical New York accent until I worked there.” Benny chuckled and took a sip of his beer. Benny had ordered a pitcher of beer and the server brought two glasses. Vanessa quickly poured herself a glass as if Benny was going to chastise her if she didn’t do it quick enough. 

Vanessa took a drink of her beer. 

“You miss Nina?” Vanessa asked. 

“Everyday,” Benny replied with a sigh. “She calls when she can but she’s so busy with classes and work. Plus, she’s gotta call her folks, and Usnavi, and you.” Vanessa smiled. Nina had gone back to Stanford three weeks ago. 

“She’s a popular girl.” Benny simply nodded before taking a long drink form his glass. Damn, he missed her. 

“How are things with Usnavi?” Benny countered to change the subject. Vanessa’s smile grew. 

“Great. He’s just…” she sighed dreamily, and then noticed what she had done. She cleared her throat and took a drink. Benny returned her smile. 

“Well, he’s been waiting for this for a while.” 

“Me too. What took him so long?” 

“Oh, you have no idea how shy he was when you started coming to the bodega every day.” 

“Oh no, I remember.” Vanessa smiled again. The two shared a laugh and then grew quiet. 

Well, they’d officially done the small talk. It was supposed to be deeper stuff, but they’d talked. Benny glanced up at the screen where the Yankees were playing. 

“Oh that was a strike!” Benny shouted at the screen. He wasn’t the only one in the bar that thought that. Vanessa followed Benny’s gaze.

“Something else I never got. Everybody’s obsession with sports.” 

“Sports are great. Especially around here. We’ve got so many.” 

“I know, but we’ve also got a lot of other things, too.” 

“Yeah, but…come on, Vanessa. I’ll teach you.” Vanessa cocked an eyebrow. 

“Really? Why?” Benny sighed.

“Because, Usnavi is a lost cause, Nina pretends to care, but I know she doesn’t, and I used to be able to talk to Sonny, but he’s still mad at me about dating Nina.” Vanessa laughed. 

“Alright, alright. Teach me.” Benny patted the seat next to him. Vanessa stood up, walked to the other side of the table and sat down. 

“Okay, so that guy,” Benny pointed to a man on the TV. He was wearing pinstripes and standing on a pile of dirt. “He’s the pitcher. His name is Mariano Rivera. He’s one of the best the Yankees have. We should keep him for a while.” 

“And he throws the ball to the catcher, right?” Benny clinked his glass with Vanessa’s, earning him a grin.

“See? You know more than you think.” Benny continued to explain what was happening and Vanessa asked questions, some good ones too. 

They went through the pitcher of beer. The game wasn’t over, yet, but Benny knew that he didn’t have a lot of cash on him. 

“Why don’t we finish the game at my place? It’s only 12 blocks from here.” Benny was slightly taken aback, but grinned. “Plus Usnavi left some weird Dominican beer in my fridge and you can help me drink it.” Benny paid (to Vanessa’s arguments) and the two began their walk to Vanessa’s apartment. It wasn’t an awkward silence like they’d had at the bar. It was a comfortable silence. Until…

“Hey, baby!” Accompanied by a whistle. 

“Some things never change.” Vanessa muttered. Benny glanced at her then the guys across the street with a big smile. 

“Thanks, fellas! I got dolled up just for you!” Benny blew a kiss to them as he and Vanessa turned onto Vanessa’s street. They both began laughing. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a group of guys look so confused.” 

“What? You don’t think I look dolled up?” Benny held his hands out to his sides and spun around. 

“Oh no, I can tell. Those are your dressed-up sneakers.” Vanessa teased as they continued down the street. 

They arrived at Vanessa’s apartment building. 

“How is it on your own?” Benny asked as they ascended the stairs. 

“It’s great actually! I mean, okay, I know it’s just a studio, but it’s mine. I pay all my own bills and my mom can’t…” Vanessa stopped short and turned to look at Benny. “I…I mean, I love my mom, don’t get me wrong, it’s just…” Benny held up his hands and gave Vanessa a small smile. 

“I get it.” Vanessa gave Benny a look of distrust. “My dad wasn’t the best guy to have around. Let’s just put it that way.” Vanessa nodded, telling Benny he didn’t need to explain more, and for that, Benny was grateful. Vanessa unlocked her door and the two stepped inside. 

“You haven’t been here since the day I moved, right?” 

“Yes, and if I remember right, that was the day Usnavi almost killed himself trying to move your dresser by himself.” The two laughed hard. 

“And…and then he was mad that you could do it!” Benny looked around, wiping tears from his eyes. 

“This place looks good.” Benny recognized a red shirt near Vanessa’s bed. He smirked but didn’t say anything. 

“Thanks. Hey, turn on the game. I want to learn more.” Vanessa nodded at the TV and walked to the fridge. Benny turned the TV on and found the game as Vanessa brought him a beer. 

“Thanks,” Benny clanked their bottles together and took a drink. It wasn’t too bad. 

“Wait, what are they doing?” Vanessa pointed to the screen where the players seemed to be moved over. Benny sat on the couch and Vanessa sat on her chair.

“That’s called a shift. So, when a certain player comes up to bat, the field does a shift because that player usually hits it to that side of the field.” 

“That’s really smart.” Vanessa looked impressed. 

“Yeah, until they hit it where your left fielder is supposed to be, not where they are.” 

“Ah, good point.” The better swung, the catcher dropped it and the better started running. “Whoa! No! That was strike three!”

“That’s called a dropped third strike. So, if they catcher drops the third strike, the batter can run, but most of the time,” the catcher picked up and threw the ball to first, “the catcher just picks up the ball and tags the guy because he doesn’t want to run.” 

“That makes no sense! So, if a pitcher throws a wild pitch, the guy swings at if for strike three, they can just run?” 

“Yup! Unless there’s somebody on first. But, only if it’s out one or two. So, if there’s somebody on first and it’s supposed to be the third out, but the catcher drops it, they can still run.” Vanessa stared blankly at him and then took a deep pull of her beer. 

“Just when I thought I had it all figured out.” Benny chuckled and looked back at the game. 

“So, Benny, seriously.” Benny looked over at Vanessa. “How are things going with Nina?” 

“I miss her like hell,” Benny was surprised by how easily that came out. Must be the beer. “I think this is even worse than when she first left because I’ve actually been with her.” Vanessa grinned and raised her eyebrows. Benny laughed.   
“I don’t mean…well, I mean, yeah. Sort of like that. But it’s more than just that part of things. I miss talking to her every day. I miss waking up to her when she would tell her dad that she was staying the night here.” Benny sighed and drank more of his beer. 

“I get it. I mean, not to the same extent. Usnavi is just up in Manhattan. But, I miss Nina too. I hate that she went so far.”

“Yeah, but she deserves it.” 

“Hell yeah she does.” Benny sighed and picked at his beer label.

“What the hell is she doing with me?” 

“Benny,” Vanessa’s voice was so gentle that he wasn’t even sure it came from her. “I could give you a hundred reasons. You want to know when she started crushing on you? I remember the first time she mentioned it.” Benny lifted one corner of his mouth. 

“Yeah?” 

“Yeah. She came to my place one day during the summer between tenth and eleventh grade and she was all giddy. It had apparently been slow, so you were at the dispatch most of the day. You kept interrupting her reading, but she didn’t mind. She also said that you made up a rap about her book cover.” Benny grinned. He remembered that day. He had to keep reminding himself that she was his boss’ daughter, and about five years younger than him. She never seemed like it though.

“She said she’d never laughed so hard.” Benny realized that day that he loved her laugh. “Then she wanted to walk by Bennett park all the time. Or go to the Bodega. Or the dispatch. See if you were there and she could pass it off as just visiting Usnavi or her dad.” 

“Really?” Benny couldn’t believe Nina, the beautiful, smart, kind, Nina had had a crush on him that long ago. 

“Yup! And then, when she would talk to you, we’d leave and being Nina, she’d analyze everything.” Vanessa expanded the last word so that it had four syllables. “’Do you think Benny talks to everybody like that?’ ‘Why would he say something like that if he’s dating Yesenia?’” Venessa made her voice higher to imitate Nina. Benny groaned.

“Hey! I never dated Yesenia!” Vanessa shrugged. 

“That was the rumor.” Benny rolled his eyes. Spend one drunken night with her and of course she told the whole barrio they were dating. Or maybe she only told Daniela and everybody else heard it from her. 

“Oh hey, the game’s over.” Vanessa pointed to the screen. The Yankees were high-fiving each other. 

“Well, I guess the lesson is over now.” 

“Damn. I was really enjoying myself.” Vanessa offered. Benny had to agree. 

“Well, there’s a couple weeks left in the season. Plus, then we can get in to football.” 

“Yes! We should do this again. This was so fun.” There was a knock at the door. “Can you grab that? I’ve gotta go to the bathroom.” Benny nodded and went to grab the door. He opened it up to see Usnavi with flowers. 

“Oh Usnavi! You shouldn’t have!” Benny gushed. Usnavi turned bright red. 

“Shut up. Where’s Vanessa?” Benny stood aside so Usnavi could walk in. 

“Bathroom.” Usnavi looked around and then at Benny. 

“So, you and Vanessa had fun, huh?”

“Yeah, actually.” Benny replied.

“You sound so surprised.” Vanessa said from behind them. Usnavi’s face lit up. He walked over and handed her the flowers. 

“Hi.” Usnavi gave Vanessa a short kiss. “So, you and Benny had fun? What did you do?” 

“He taught me about baseball. Next he’s going to teach me about football.” Vanessa shot Benny a big smile as she moved to the kitchen to get a vase for the flowers.

“And maybe you’ll pay more attention if Vanessa tries to teach you.” Benny gave Usnavi a playful shove. 

“I know about baseball and football!” Usnavi’s voice cracked slightly. Vanessa and Benny’s eyes met and they smirked. “Well, sort of.” 

“I should probably let you guys get to your date.” Benny offered. 

“Are you sure?” Usnavi asked, but Benny could tell he wanted to be alone with Vanessa. 

“Yeah, man. I’ll talk to you,” Benny glanced at Vanessa and she gave him a wink. “Tomorrow morning. You two don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” Vanessa snorted. 

“What don’t you and Nina do?” Usnavi’s face tinged pink. 

“We are NOT having this conversation. Ever.” Vanessa rolled her eyes. 

“Excuse my prude of a boyfriend.” Benny laughed. It was true Usnavi and Benny talked about their relationships, of course, but never went into details about their sex lives. Mostly because Usnavi saw Nina as a sister, so Benny didn’t blame him. 

“I’ll talk to you guys later.” Benny offered again as a way to see himself out and change the subject. 

“Bye, Benny.” Vanessa leaned closer and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Benny smiled.

“See ya, man.” Usnavi offered his hand and Benny have him a quick five. 

Benny gave them one last smile before walking out the door. He kept smiling all the way to the ground floor and out the building. Not to sound cheesy, but Benny was pretty sure this was the beginning of beautiful friendship. 

Benny was almost to the A train when his phone rang. He glanced down and smiled. 

“Hey, baby.”


End file.
